Hi Dave-C, and everyone Else. I am just throwing this thought out there. Since I have been completing this most intense recovery due to injuries that I sustained from my last Flight in my Predator. Ny Flying has been severely Curtailed. I Have been able to get two Flights in a Two seat Grobe Sailplane. I'm saying this to you Dave and everyone else. That flying a Sailplane with the controlling the Plane using both your Hands and your Feet, makes me feel like a "PRIMATE PILOT" But flying that Sail-plane I quickly found out that while it is a totally different flying Machine. But you are flying using the same thing to get you up: Heck, a Thermal is a Thermal righty?

But in a sailplane your dependence on gravity or positive g is not so important .
The complexity of getting airborne is far more convoluted .
Just my opinion but hangliders, and more so paragliders ,are coastal, or mild weather machines .

I understand that the Mechanics are radically different regarding how a Pilot controls each Cir-Craft as it flies. Hence my motivation for coming up with the expression "Primate Pilot" . It is just the case that both air-craft do not have an engine. Well in reality each air craft does share the same engine that is Their driving force, The Sun.

I see flying asail-plane as my ticket back into the environment where I yearn to return. The sky!

There's a big gap between the weight-shift controlled flex wing and the stick'n'rudder glider.

We have the choice of those two, and of course the spoileron type used on the rigids.

I would like to be independent of the positive-G-only thing, but I don't want rudder pedals. I think that a control "handle" of sorts would fit me best, where the "handle" can twist about a longitudinal axis for roll, pivot about a vertical axis for yaw, and tilt about a lateral axis for pitch. I would also appreciate being able to couple the roll and yaw functions, with a spring that I can over-ride should I wish to slip. Fly-by-wire is an intriguing idea. A thing shaped somewhat like the glider, mounted on a movable post, sized to fit my palm and without looking at it it's position and feel tell me just what trim condition I'm in. I press a button with my thumb, and then I tilt or twist or pivot the thing to a new trim setting, release the button and it tells the glider's servos what to do. An emergency dis-connect shuts it down by pulling the pins connecting the servos to the glider, and I'm back to manual control.

That's a bit far-fetched, but what the heck it's entertaining to imagine it. More realistic is me twisting the wings collectively or differentially, with a tail or canard surfaces taking up the pitching moments enough to leave me with very light stick forces. I am 'Lazypilot' after all.

I'm still imagineering just what a new type of Part 103 flying apparatus will look like. I am getting closer all the time, but there's just so much to consider and there are many demands on my time.

Some things that I know for sure: Any physical effort I have to use must go directly into the control of airflow around the glider. No more playing the middle man that weight-shift requires, no more having to be in a positive G condition to have control of the glider's attitude. I've had enough of a glider still rotating nose-up even with the bar stuffed. No more slow sluggish response to my roll input. No more fighting the damn built-in up-elevator on a windy launch.

And I'm not concerned about set-up and breakdown issues. If it takes twice or thrice the time to put it together it will be worth it to have a glider that is truly airworthy, something I haven't seen yet.

If I can't have it my way I'll just do without. No more settling for a hot dog when I'm wanting a steak. I'm better off hungry, maybe if I get hungry enough I'll get up and make it. But it's a big job for an old phart.

Well what I was thinking about was that both a Sailplane and a Hang-Glider both need to work their environment the same. I mean both Aircraft need to work their available Lift. It is true that how both aircraft are controlled. One having a stick and rudder, and ailerons. The other using weight shift to control it's movement through a given Airspace.

I see my flights in a Sailplane as a Lateral movement. But Heck a Thermal is a Thermal. I mean granted I am not flying my beloved Predator. But I'm Flying!